Seized Memory Card Contained al Qaeda Documents Encoded in Porn

Last year, Maqsood Lodin was being interviewed by police after he'd travelled to Pakistan. When his questioners found a memory card in his underwear, they were suspicious—but it seemed only to contain porn. Later investigation, however, reveals that one film was actually encoded with more than 100 secret al Qaeda documents.

CNN reports that Lodin had travelled back to his home in Austria, from Pakistan, via Budapest, Hungary and Germany, which is what aroused suspicion. When police found the memory stick, all they could find on it was a pornographic video called Kick Ass and a file marked Sexy Tanja.

It has now come to light that, after several weeks of analysis, German investigators discovered more than 100 al Qaeda documents encoded inside the porn video—including an inside track on some of the terror group's future operations and PDF terrorist training manuals in German, English and Arabic. CNN reports that US military sources have told it that the trove of files are "the most important haul of al Qaeda materials in the last year".

Future attacks detailed in the documents include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks in Mumbai in November 2008. Lodin is now on trial in Berlin, where he's pleading not guilty to terrorism charges. [CNN]